They were welcomed at the iron gate of the city as envoys from-Troy and bidden to lodge at the palace. Kassandra, saying she must pay her respects at the Sunlord's Temple, went to his large shrine which had been built at the very center of the city, and sacrificed a pair of doves to Apollo of the Long Bow. After that, she was taken to the palace, and conducted to a luxurious guest suite, where bath-women and dressing-maids were put at her disposal. During the long process of bathing—or rather of being bathed - she reflected that during the long journey she had all but forgotten the taste of luxury. She enjoyed the steaming water, the fragrant oils, the gentle massaging of her flesh with brushes and the soft hands of the women. Then they dressed her in fine guest-garments and conducted her into the presence-chamber of Queen Imandra.
She had expected that the Queen would look older; she herself was no longer the childlike girl who had come here, shy and tongue-tied, at Penthesilea's side. But the change was more than she could ever have imagined; if she had met this woman anywhere except in this very throne-room, she would never have recognized her as the proud descendant of Medea.
Imandra had grown enormously fatter; she was imposing rather than gross, hung everywhere with gold; but she had ceased to adorn her fleshy body with the coils of living serpents. Her cheeks and lips were stained with red dye, and she wore the richly dyed robes of fine-spun thin cloth which came from the land of the Pharaohs by way of the Eastern roads. Her hair was studded with jewels as always. Amid all this splendour, only the merry dark eyes were the same, almost lost in the folds of flesh.
As Kassandra entered the hall and paused to give her the ritual greeting, Imandra rose from her throne, and walked - or rather, waddled - forward.
"No, my dear, no prostrations from my kinswoman," she said, seizing Kassandra in a warm and scented embrace; the perfume was as familiar as the eyes. "I am more glad than I can say to see you, daughter of Priam; what a long journey you have had! No doubt you bear messages from my daughter—"
"From your daughter and your grandson; Andromache is a mother, and soon to be - no, by this time she has another child if all has gone well," Kassandra said, and Imandra beamed.
"I knew it, I knew it; did I not say, my dear, that enough time had gone by that I should be twice a grand-dam, if my daughter had done her duty?" she asked, addressing a handsomely built young man, attired in gold cloth, like an athlete or the victor of the Games, who had been given the seat near her side. "Tomorrow I must look in the pool of ink and try to see her child, and if all is well with her."
She took Kassandra's hands and drew her to the high table, seating herself between Kassandra and the richly dressed young man. "Now tell me everything which has happened in Troy these last years since you went from me, taking my dearest treasure with you. And what brings you so far without your kinswomen?"
"Perhaps," said the young man,"the Lady Kassandra has come to beseech our assistance in this war against the Akhaians."
"Not if she travelled under Apollo's truce," said Queen Imandra, "I know something of that, dear boy." She turned back to Kassandra. "Even so, you need not break your pledge if you have made it; without any asking, I will send to Priam all the soldiers I can find, men or women, and as much as wagons can carry of metals and weapons too."
"You are more than generous," Kassandra said, and explained her errand. Imandra smiled and kissed her.
"My own priestesses and masters of serpents shall be consulted early on the morrow," she said, "or as soon as they tell me it is an auspicious day for such things. I need hardly say that all the wisdom to be found in all our city is at your command and at the command of the Trojan Apollo. You shall be free to speak with them at any time; but you must promise to pay me a long visit."
"Your Majesty is gracious," Kassandra said; she was weary of travelling and at the moment desired nothing more than a long stay in Colchis.
"Not at all, kinswoman," Imandra replied. "Are you not my fellow priestess, and nearest of all in kin to my daughter? And my soothsayers say the child I bear now will be another daughter, and I find it a good omen that you should be here for the birth."
Kassandra had not had the faintest inkling that the Lady was pregnant; indeed if she had given a moment's thought to the matter she would have believed Imandra old beyond the age of bearing. But now she looked closely she saw indeed that the Queen was indeed in the early stages of pregnancy. When she had taken this in, she complimented the Queen upon her expectations, and asked, "Will this then be heir to Colchis in Andromache's place?"
"It will; Andromache cares nothing for queenship; you must have found that out by now," Imandra said, "and it is not hard to forget about the business of being a queen when a woman is-happy; even if that woman is a queen. Have I not said this to you before, Agon?" she demanded.
And the handsome young man said, "Indeed, my Lady."
Imandra's broad face was wreathed in a grin Kassandra could only describe as 'foolish' as her eyes rested on her favourite, and Kassandra, abruptly understanding the state of affairs, was shocked; the independent Queen Imandra, Lady of Colchis, besotted with a handsome boy no older than her daughter? And besotted she certainly was; the very tone of her voice said so. He shared her plate and wine-cup, and she sought out all the finest delicacies to offer to him.
When they had dined, Kassandra sent for the chests she had carried with her and brought out the gifts which Andromache had sent to her mother; embroidered hangings, bolts of richly dyed fabric, even richly decorated bronze swords and knives; several of these, the Queen, with an indifferent gesture, bestowed at once on her consort.
"But don't tell me you want to go and fight in Troy," she said firmly. "I need you at my side to help me bring up our daughter; and even more if the soothsayers are wrong and it is a son."
"I wouldn't think of leaving you, my Lady," he said, "certainly not to fight in some faraway country. If Agamemnon or any of those fellows comes here trying to take Colchis, that would be quite another matter."
Imandra turned to Kassandra. "Tell me about this war, and this Spartan Queen," she said. "Distant as we are, I know something about her family, of course. What sort of person can she be, to have touched off such a widespread war as this?"
Kassandra said slowly, "I had not expected to like her or respect her. But I do; I think the Gods dealt harshly by her when they put her in the way of my brother Paris."
"Well, she had every right to take a consort," said Imandra, with a sly smile at young Agon, "but it was her mistake that she did not dismiss Menelaus - or have the old sacrifice! These things should be done in order. Her mother was Queen by right in Mykenae, and Sparta was Helen's to rule; her crime - and it was truly a crime for a queen - was leaving Sparta for Menelaus to seize, and this has confused the issue. Have they given it over to her daughter to rule after her? I'll warrant they have not; Hermione is too young to be aware of her queenship. These Akhaian savages try to bring their prattle of "kings" into our civilized world; and their mighty talk of fathering - as if any man could create life. The Goddess alone breathes life into children; yet some of these men are arrogant enough to say that the woman is no more than an oven in which their child—their child, did you ever hear such nonsense—is cooked. That Agamemnon—may he be cursed by every Goddess and all the Furies!" Imandra exclaimed.